Sherman County eNews #28

CONTENTS

All County Prayer Meeting, Feb. 7

Update: Current Candidates for Sherman County Judge

The Path to Happiness

Conducting Meetings

Links: Things to Think About & Things to Do

1. All County Prayer Meeting, Feb. 7

Please join us this Wednesday evening (Feb 7) at 6:30 for the All County Prayer meeting at the Rufus Baptist Church. Refreshments and social time at 6:30, prayer from 7:00 to 8:30. We always have much to be thankful for, and much that we need to pray about. Join us if you can, you will be blessed if you do! Hope to see you there. ~Pastor Scott Holliday

Sarah Sullivan, Executive Director of Gorge Grown Food Network, will speak on the demand for locally grown grain in the Pacific Northwest, along with a review on what she learned recently at the Cascadia Grains Conference.

Grass Valley Hemp Company will be giving a short presentation about hemp and what they will be doing as a new agriculture company in Sherman County.

3. Update: Current Candidates for Sherman County Judge

In a search by year, primary election, position (county judge) and county at <https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/cfFilings.do> as of February 3, 2018, the Secretary of State’s website showed two primary election candidates for Sherman County Judge, a non-partisan position.

Larry Hoctor filed on 20 September 2017. The website shows that Mike Smith filed on 25 October 2017, although this was not obvious on this site until January or February, 2018, without checking an additional search for the filing method.

For those who follow elections, the result of an inquiry to the Elections Division, Oregon Secretary of State, is this explanation from Compliance Specialist Alma Whalen: “It has to do with the fact that he (Smith) filed by prospective petition originally. He decided to convert to fee instead of collecting signatures so I changed the filing method to fee after he paid. At this point in time the only way to find people who have filed by petition is by selecting prospective petition as the filing method in addition to the other search criteria. Otherwise only those who have paid the fee and petitions marked as ‘Completed Petition’ will show up. I hope that this will be changed in the future so that a user wouldn’t have to designate ‘prospective petition’ to see all of the candidates as this is not intuitive…”

Smith is currently the Executive Director of Marketing for Frontier TeleNet.

4. The Path to Happiness

Everyone wants to be happy. It’s kind of engrained in us, because of the way our brains have been wired. Unfortunately, despite brains being wired for happiness producing events, not everyone knows how. Today, let’s talk about two ways to be happy, and one of them is guaranteed.

What does happiness mean to you? Some people think happiness is getting all or most of the things they want. They always have lists of new things they want or are about to get: cars, vacations, fancy clothes, new furniture for their houses, the latest in electronic entertainment systems or devices.

But often these people are deeply discontented, for no matter how much they acquire, they never seem to have enough. A new acquisition brings them pleasure, but the pleasure only lasts for a little while. Happiness is always in the future, always appearing and then disappearing.

Someone once said that there are two ways to be happy: the first is to have all the things that you want; the second is to have the wisdom to enjoy the things you have. When you practice the second way, you are able to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest elements of life. Even in hardship, you will find many reasons to feel joy on a daily basis. That doesn’t stop you from wanting more. You are simply grateful for what you have, now.

And you will feel good when you acquire something new. But your real and lasting happiness will be found in relationships, in simple pleasures, in nature, and in actions that show love. If you remember that the time to be happy is now and the place to be happy is where you are, you will find a joy that no amount of money, or abundance of things, can buy. ~The Pacific Institute

5. Conducting Meetings

Following is a much-abridged version of Robert’s Rules as they might be adapted for nonprofit meetings. The goal is to promote a balance of fairness and efficiency. Tailor them to fit your own organization. Meetings should be fair so that people who have a point to make are given an opportunity. Meetings should be efficient so that time is spent on discussion relevant to the matter at hand. ~ American Society of Corporate Secretaries.

Order of business–[per agenda circulated in advance]

Opening of meeting (Chair)

Submission of minutes of previous meeting (Secretary)

Reading of reports, i.e. Treasurer’s, Fund-Raising, Program Committee’s and discussion

Old business

Unfinished business from previous meetings

Motions that were tabled from previous meetings

New business–motions to be made for voting by the board

Meeting closing (on schedule)

Discussion

Only members and guests recognized by the Chair may speak.

Motions and Voting

Generally, before any item can be discussed, there should be a motion made and seconded. Once a motion has been seconded, discussion will follow. After discussion, one of four things can happen:

There can be a vote on the motion.

The motion can be amended (second required). Then there can be discussion on the amendment. The amendment can be voted. If the amendment passes, the motion automatically passes. If the amendment fails, the motion still stands and can be discussed until voted.

The motion can be tabled (second required). There can be no discussion on a motion to table–a vote must be taken immediately. If the vote is to table, no further discussion can take place on the motion.

There may be no action on the motion–therefore it becomes old business at a future meeting.

Motions must be clear and concise. A motion to “improve fund-raising” would be vague and discussions could meander. However, a motion to “sponsor a benefit golf tournament” is specific and could be effectively discussed and acted on.

Committees

Make general board meetings more productive by use of committees and rely on committee reports as a basis for action. Committees can sort through minutiae and come forward with a well-developed proposal for the whole board to consider. Committees can also be a development pool for future board members.

Disagreements

The Chair of the meeting is responsible for maintaining order. On procedural questions, the Chair’s ruling will be determinative and final.

Also see: Governance for Nonprofits: From Little Leagues to Universities, A Summary of Organizational Governance Principles and Resources for Directors of Nonprofit Organizations By The American Society of Corporate Secretaries and The National Center for Nonprofit Boards.